Christmas is sort of over but the Magic Reality continues in the lead up to the new Regime.This year it was sort of the Christmas that never was. Very few houses were decorated and not many lights. Normally Cariocas go ape shit and there are multiple strings of flashing lights in every apartment block. This yeah Meh!They know what is coming. This could well be the lull before a particularily virulent storm.Amid the chaos Eduardo Bolsonazi calls for the death penalty for traficantes as his father president elect Bolsonazi snr says in his Twitter account that the death penalty issue will not be debated in his government. Well I suppose it’s one way to try and faze the opposition if you support the militias, but wait aren’t they one and the same now? Just more bullshit populist politicing.

In april The Intercept published (only in Portuguese unfortunately) a thorough investigation into the Milicias assuming control of Rio de Janeiro.and has just run a very informative investigation project on the end of the notorious Amigos dos Amigos cartel in Rio de Janeiros and the over sixty of favelas affected. A highly visual presentation which takes a while to load but is worth the wait.

Last week was also the 50th anniversary of the Institutional Act 5, the 1968 “coup within the coup” which ushered in an even more brutal and repressive phase of the Military dictatorshipThe ghost of this repression still looms large. Jair Bolsonaro’s victory in the Brazilian presidential election marks the triumph of a new, digital form of totalitarian movement in which the masses are the driver of their own manipulation. But this doesn’t make it less harmful than traditional fascist models. Bolsonaro has been explicit that he will only grant rights, be they political or to life itself, to those who will fall in line.

The hard right supportors of the Bolsonazi all have little Brazilian and Israeli flags on their twitter handles – very strange.He idolizes Trump whose star is about to go underwater, and also the soon to be convicted criminal Netanyahu who is selling weapons and technology to the new regime to be.Like Trump they use Twitter as an official form of communication. To get an idea of the transparency of this the Bolsonazi and his sons have just blocked Leandro Demori executive editor of the Intercept Brazil, and several of his reporting staff for questioning deliberate lies.

Meanwhile the Rapist João de Deus withdrew 35 million from his accounts and ran away before he could be arrested only to give himself up a day later. This internationaly known, celebrity visited healer / medium / scammer enticed one of his victims back by telling her if she didn’t return for his “ministrations” her cancer would come back.An all round shyster as told by swedish journalist Henrik Brandão who interviewed him a few years ago.The number of his accusers for rape and sexual violation now exceeds 300.

Lastly some local news from Dona Marta – half a km from where I live and which used to be a calm and peaceful favela much visited by tourists.Many of the community, located in Botafogo, ran out of electricity for three days after cables were shot down during a gun battle with the security forces. The heat has been in the 30’s during the day.